Well, I did it. I signed up at PetSmart for a beginner obedience class with Frankie. I hope we do ok! I liked the fact that when I turned in the paperwork the trainer said that we couldn't use choke chains or prong collars. She also said that if I wanted to use the clicker during class, it would be ok.
So our training session in the afternoon and evening consisted on brushing up on sits and downs and adding some stays in there, too, just to see how she'd do. She did well! I was able to put her in a sit/stay or down/stay and walk around the chair or duck behind a wall for a bit. At first, with the downs, she wanted to go into her play dead trick, so that was a bit frustrating, but ignoring her usually does the trick. She finally got it.
In other news, I'm trying the positive reinforcement in Sunday school again today. I know the older kids caught on right away, but I'm still thinking about a way to implement this with the younger kids (they're separated so that the younger ones 4-8 come in right after church, and the older ones 9-11 come in later). They tend to sing well, anyway, so I might reserve the treats for just the older (stubborn) kids.
And the rain is back. Yay.
That's all for now.
Ellen & Frankie
Ohhh, I like the
Ohhh, I like the thermometer idea! Before we did our program I had one of the well known men the kids all loved come in and be a 'judge'(kind of like American Idol, but nice). The reward for singing well? The kids got to cut off his tie piece by piece (this was pre-arranged, of course)! Our goal was to get it so short he could't put it back in his v-neck sweater. They loved it! In a few minutes I'll post an update about what happened today with the kids.
Ellen & Frankie
Frankie and singers
Good for you and Frankie! It sounds like Frankie is waaaay ahead of Bailey on the "stay." Bailey will stay as long as I look intently at him and maintain the hand signal. If I move, he moves. We haven't gotten beyond that.
Just some random ideas about your younger singers: a nice little sign on a stick that one child in a class gets to hold (and take to class, if that apples) if his/her class sang well that day........or a sticky label for their shirt/dress that says, "I sang like a songbird today".....or individual names or class names on a chalk board when one child or a whole class did well....or commercial stickers for every child that is singing well as you walk up and down the rows.....or when the whole groups sings well each teacher gets a page of stickers to put on each kid, or helpers put tiny stickers on kids as they file out, or some other way to reward the whole group, cuz they did so well......or a poster "thermometer" that rises as the kids sing better and better....